Convection-enhanced delivery: into your tumor using gravity or controlled flow

Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment where high-powered medications are used to kill cancer cells. It’s a systemic approach to cancer treatment, where drugs are delivered through your bloodstream, targeting cancer cells throughout your body.

When I first started at Scott & White, life expectancy for advanced colon cancer was six months. It’s now over two years. I have patients who have up to five years survival from the diagnosis. The hope is with each new therapy, we’ll extend life.

Scott & White’s Approach

Our medical oncologists take meticulous care to determine which chemotherapy drug or drugs are best for you. Several factors impact their decision, including the type, location and stage of your specific tumor and your overall medical condition.

How Chemotherapy Is Used to Treat Cancer

Your physician team may recommend chemotherapy in addition to or instead of other treatments for your colon cancer.

Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment where drugs are injected, given orally or through an IV, to keep your cancer from spreading. Often chemotherapy drugs are used in combination to attack cancer cells. It’s usually given in cycles over several months.

Chemotherapy is used in some cases:

To kill any remaining cancer cells after surgery or radiation therapy; this kind of chemotherapy is called adjuvant chemotherapy

To shrink the size of your tumor before surgery or radiation therapy; this kind of chemotherapy is called neoadjuvant therapy

To treat metastatic cancer (cancer that has spread)

To treat recurrent cancer (cancer that has returned)

As a palliative — to relieve the symptoms caused by cancer, such as bone pain

There are a wide variety of chemotherapy drugs available to treat cancer. At Scott & White, we use all the standard chemotherapies.